NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT SAYS SEARCH OF DORM ROOM BY DARTMOUTH POLICE
WAS LEGAL

Campus police officers at Dartmouth College can search students' dormitory
rooms for illegal drugs without first obtaining a search warrant, New
Hampshire's Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

The court's decision
(http://www.state.nh.us/courts/supreme/opinions/0210/nemse124.htm) reversed
a ruling by a state district court in a case involving a student who was
charged with marijuana possession after campus police officers found
illegal drugs during a search of the student's dorm room. A lawyer for the
student, Adam Nemser, argued that the search had violated the student's
protection against improper searches and seizures, under the Fourth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The student charged that the evidence
had been gathered improperly and that the charges should be dropped.

The case turned on whether campus police officers are effectively agents of
the state because they regularly cooperate with local police officers.
While searches by private officials on private property are not protected
by the Fourth Amendment, searches by state agents are protected.

The lower court found that "a sufficient relationship" existed between the
campus police and the Hanover Police Department, and that constitutional
protections applied to the search of the student's room.

But last week, the state's Supreme Court ruled that the campus police had
acted independently of law-enforcement officials, and that the search was
thus legal. "The college acted for its own purposes in enforcing its own
policy against drug possession by students," the court found.

Laurel Stavis, a Dartmouth spokeswoman, said that the campus police had
acted independently.

"Their primary responsibility is maintaining the safety and security of the
college community," she said. "They are not a law-enforcement agency."

"When there is a reality or appearance of illegal drugs and [campus police]
confiscate them, they inform the Hanover police," she added.

Ann M. Rice, the New Hampshire associate attorney general who argued the
case for the state, said that she was pleased with the decision.

"Our basic argument was that [the campus police] were acting to enforce the
college's policy against possession of drugs, and they were not acting with
the knowledge of the Hanover Police Department," she said.

"If a student has agreed to living in the conditions of a dorm, then
basically students have agreed to that" kind of search, she added.

Mr. Nemser's lawyer, George H. Ostler, could not be reached on Monday for
comment.